Happy Anniversary

On this day eight years ago, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic premiered on the Hub Network. A bunch of grown men decided to watch it as a joke, and then realized that it was actually a pretty good show. Very quickly, bronies came into the forefront of media for defying societal expectation that grown men aren't supposed to enjoy things marketed to young girls.

I was not one of those first bronies. I was in college then, and heard about it within the first few months from my social group of commuters, one in particular who'd been a fan of the original run back in the 80's. It wasn't until spring of 2014 when I was bored and decided to start watching the show and see how many cultural references I could find. I learned two things. One, I deeply overestimated how many cultural references I knew, and two, I deeply underestimated how much I would enjoy this show.

I used to write fiction and poetry all the time in high school. English was consistently one of my best classes, I was part of the Creative Writing Club from eighth to twelfth grades, and participated in (and failed to complete) National Novel Writing Month. When I got to college, however, my writing dwindled to just schoolwork. I tried participating in NaNoWriMo once or twice, but never got my thoughts organized enough to even start. By the time I graduated in December 2013, I'd all but lost my muse. The next spring, however, my brother and I were talking about what would happen if Twilight had never been born, and I couldn't stop thinking about it.

On this day four years ago, I published the first chapter of The Princess That Equestria Never Had on Archive of Our Own. It was an ambitious project, as I'd never completed a lengthy work before, but this time I had a basic outline, at least for the first half of what now exists. By March, I'd finished the story I'd wanted to tell, and like magic I suddenly felt like I had a lot more stories to tell. I uploaded it a few weeks later here on fimfiction soon after I'd learned this site existed. In June of 2015 I went to my first convention, MLP-MSP 2 in Bloomington, MN (I'd learned about its existence a couple weeks after its first year and at the time hadn't had the means to go to Ponyville Ciderfest in Milwaukee, WI). There, I met some of the show crew like M.A. Larson, some famous bronies like ACRacebest and Saberspark, and watched one of my favorite episodes, "Slice of Life".

I decided for the next year to buy the highest sponsorship tier, and to host a panel on fanfiction. My panel wasn't accepted, but a brony I'd first met through twitter and quickly became friends with named Vivid Syntax invited me to join him on his panel, which I was glad to do.

This year, I'll be hosting a panel right after Opening Ceremonies called "Fanfiction vs the Forces of Canon" at Ponyville Ciderfest. It's bound to be one of the greatest brony conventions of all time, with amounts of music unmatched by any other. Only regular registration remains, so if you're able to come and haven't bought a badge yet, now is the time! I'll see you there!